Editorial: No justification for tax increase

Our view: The state government wants more money for a variety of things, and a private initiative wants more money for schools. Leaving the money in the taxpayers' pockets would be better for California.

In the past few years, has the state of California given you a single good reason to trust it with your tax dollars? If so, please point it out to us, because we can't think of one. And there is plenty of evidence that the state can't be trusted.

When was the last time there was budget that was really balanced? It's been a while. But every year the Legislature approves a budget, and every year the governor signs it. And then a few months later, gosh, we're in the red.

The schools see the support due them delayed, forcing them to slash, beg and borrow until the state gets around to fulfilling its obligations. Public university student fees soar, though not as fast as public university presidents' salaries.

State parks are tagged for closure, and the citizenry responds, raising millions of dollars to keep them open. And oops, there's all the tax revenue that was need to keep them open, hidden in some bureaucrats' slush fund.

And now we have Proposition 30. A temporary hike in the sales tax and a temporary hike in the income tax for people making $250,000 a year. It's temporary. It doesn't sound like much. It'll just tide the state over until the economy turns around.

Hogwash. It's a blank check to a spendaholic. And it's blackmail. We're told that if we don't vote to raise our taxes, funding for many the things that are important to us will be cut. If we give the state a little more money, schools will get money, universities will get money, and everything will be wonderful ... this year. But next year, there are no guarantees.

The duplicity becomes even clearer when you note the line in the official summary of the measure in the voter pamphlet: "Guarantees funding for public safety services realigned from state to local governments." This is prison realignment. Ordered by the feds to reduce the state prison population, Sacramento dumped about 40,000 inmates and parolees into the counties' laps. It should have been a win-win situation for the state, because the aid it sent to the counties to handle those inmates was less than it cost the state to deal with them. But those savings are gone somehow, and we have to raise our taxes to guarantee ... that the state can squander what it saved, apparently.

California has plenty of tax revenue. Enough to pursue a bullet train from Bakersfield to Modesto, and tunnels under the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta able to transfer more water from Northern California to Southern California than is actually available. But it can't take care of its basic responsibilities to its citizens.

And it wants more of our money? No way. No on Proposition 30.

It's not the only tax hike on the ballot. There's also Proposition 38, which raises income taxes on pretty much everyone to provide more money for education. We have a long-standing resistance to tax hikes for a single purpose — it's one of the reason the state budget is so messed up.

But we also think leaving the money in the taxpayers' pockets is more likely to right the economy, a situation that would benefit education and governments at all levels.

Proposition 38 hits everyone. If you make $7,316 a year, your taxes would go up. We're not convinced anyone can afford a tax hike right now. We're pretty sure folks making that little can't afford one.